Energy was high today at the Y Combinator Demo Day, as a sea of young entrepreneurs jostled for attention – and funding – from a vast throng of Silicon Valley investors. I chatted with NFL Hall of Famer, Joe Montana who’s ditched his 49ers helmet for an angel investor hat these days (see the halo?) He was busy with the much buzzed about Helion Energy team which is working on “the world’s first commercial nuclear fusion reactor.” They hope to prove commercial scale fusion within 3 years by building a 50 Megawatt reactor in Redmond Washington, providing carbon emission-free power for 40,000 homes.
I’m curious to find out if the nuclear fusion company Tri-Alpha Energy, backed by Mad Men’s Harry Hamlin will consider a joint venture, or perhaps just some knowledge fusion?
Montana said he committed to four other startups today, including Backpack, a company that connects travelers to shoppers, cutting price differentials for items like medicine and electronics around the world; and Unwind Me, an on-demand massage app. Sign me up for that demo!
Here are photos from today’s Y Combinator Demo Day, where 75 startup teams presented and deep-pocketed investors like Jillian Manus looked for the next WhatsApp.
Alexis Ohanian (of Reddit fame) & Irina Lukashuk call time at Y Combinator.
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Photo credit: Fresh Dialogues
And some more (green tinged) highlights:
1. Edyn is a smart irrigation system for home gardeners and small farmers. Given California’s massive drought challenges, this one caught my eye. A huge Kickstarter success with a cool design by Jambox designer, Yves Behar, it’s set to go into production with Flextronics. Selling for $160, it could be a popular holiday gift this winter.
2. UPower is building nuclear batteries. This smart team, all MIT grads, describe their product as “a plug-and-play nuclear thermal battery.” Their target market is off-grid locations such as remote islands. I spoke with cofounder Caroline Cochran who emphasized the carbon-free, emission-free nature of nuclear batteries and assured me that they were addressing safety concerns around radioactive waste. According to a report by Kyle Russell at Techcrunch, “the reactor, in addition to being fuel agnostic (it can use thorium, uranium, or recycled fuel) can actually reduce the half life of existing waste, and spent fuel from it can be reused in another reactor with some processing.”
3. Beep is an operating system to make your speakers smart. Think: the Internet of “Audio-Things.” The ex-Googlers confirm that Beep already works with Pandora and Spotify and say you’ll soon be able to control your favorite NEST thermostat using your voice. It sounds like Star Trek’s Enterprise is closer than you think…
4. Vatler offers a valet service for workers, special event attendees, etc. Think: Uber for parking. As the CEO said in his presentation, drive into any big city (say San Francisco?) and “parking’s a bitch.” His team’s solution: an app to help you find an instant valet, using a quick tap on your phone. Quicker than looking, cheaper than parking.
5. The Immunity Project is developing a free vaccine to end AIDS and HIV. Frankly, it made all the earlier presentations seem trivial solutions to “first world problems” (except perhaps UPower) and got the audience’s most enthusiastic response. Find out more about this ambitious project here.
Big thanks to Y Combinator partner, Kat Manalac for the invitation.
Joe Montana photo credit: Vicki Thompson of SV Business Journal.
The event was held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View where there’s a remarkable collection of photos by Doug Menuez in the foyer, featuring Silicon Valley tech luminaries, including the inimitable Steve Jobs. Check it out next time!
The dynamic new CEO of SVForum, Adiba Barney rolled out the red carpet this week for the 17th Visionary Awards. But despite all the glitz and glamor, there was a strong message: use tech to make the world better. Of course, each recipient has an impressive resume: Jessica Jackley, cofounder of Kiva; Tim O’Reilly, open source advocate and media producer; Tina Seelig, director of Stanford Tech Ventures Program; and Tim Draper, founder of Draper University and partner at DFJ Ventures. But how did each get where they are today and what can you learn from their journey?
Here are some of the lessons the visionaries shared at Tuesday’s event:
1. Ask: what if?
Jackley witnessed a new level of poverty while working in Africa and when she returned to Silicon Valley, she wanted to help change some lives, especially those with an entrepreneurial drive. She said, “People in Silicon Valley are always talking about the future…so ask: what if?”
Her inspiration? She was killing time at Stanford University one evening, and just happened to attend a talk by Muhammad Yunis, the Nobel Prize winning founder of “banker to the poor” Grameen Bank. His success helped launch the microlending phenomenon and inspired Kiva, a nonprofit microlender that’s now shared over half a billion dollars in startup funds with entrepreneurs around the world.
2. Have some accidents
Tim Draper confessed that he often discovered and backed companies like Skype by complete accident. Often he was actually looking for, or working on something else. His message: “If you want to be a visionary, go out and have some accidents!” And he proceeded to fling his glass of water into the crowd. Fortunately there were no injuries, though fellow journalist, Tom Foremski got the brunt of the baptism.
3. Go for love not money
Tim O’Reilly said “I urge you all: do things for love, with no expectation of return…celebrate the success of people who make a difference.” He described Silicon Valley as a place “for people who dream, who care…about stuff other than making an exit.”
Although he’s a big believer in the power of the markets, he underlined the obligation to “give back” and in his great literary style, he even quoted a passage from Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables” to underline his point that an entrepreneur should think “much of others, and little of him (or her) self.” He’s recently embraced the vision of Jennifer Pahlka’s Code for America. It helps bring more top tech talent into government (e.g. the tech team that went to D.C. to help rescue HealthCare.Gov’s disastrous rollout).
“We need to fix government, not abandon it!” said O’Reilly.
4. Never miss an opportunity to be fabulous
Tina Seelig is the epitome of Silicon Valley passion for entrepreneurship and technology; and urges us all to ask big questions. Her mantra is “never miss an opportunity to be fabulous” and although she didn’t say it, her energetic body language seemed to be chanelling Adele’s line from Rolling in the Deep: “Throw your soul through every open door!”
5. Have a passion for “Yes”
Steven Levy, a senior writer at Wired Magazine, and former honoree himself, introduced Tim O’Reilly and reminded everyone that behind every “no” is a “yes.”
“At the core of Silicon Valley is a passion for yes,” he said. “This is the place where people don’t look for reasons to say no…(instead) someone comes up with a crazy idea and they have permission to do it.”
Presumably he means, if you want to be a real tech visionary, there’s no place like Silicon Valley.
Check back soon for Fresh Dialogues interviews with Jessica Jackley, Tina Seelig, Jennifer Pahlka and Tim Draper.
This SVForum event took place at the home of Kelly Porter in Los Altos Hills on Tuesday June 3rd, 2014.
It’s amazing who you bump into at Silicon Valley conferences! Last week, it was Harry Hamlin of Mad Men fame. Turns out he’s a huge fan of Tesla Motors and Elon Musk. I put my Mad Men zeal aside and we talked internal combustion vs electric cars; the need for clean energy and why he thinks nuclear fusion, not wind and solar, is the answer. (Here’s a little primer on nuclear fusion if, like me, your physics is a wee bit rusty).
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“I will never buy another internal combustion engine car,” says Harry Hamlin. The Mad Men star is completely enamoured by his Tesla Model S, and says it outperforms any car he’s ever driven, and he’s driven them all during his long and tumultuous acting career: from Aston Martin to Ferrari and Lamborghini to Porsche.
We discuss his vision for a clean energy future and he gives us a lesson from Einstein on nuclear fusion. You may notice a big smile on my face when he launches into an explanation of E=MC Squared. It was one of the most surreal moments in my eventful interviewing career. Hamlin may be a pretty face, but he’s also quite the intellectual.
He eschewed questions about his investments in clean energy, however Michael Kanellos of Forbes has written about the secretive company, Tri-Alpha Energy, with which Hamlin is connected. Kanellos also points out, that although nuclear fusion offers a tantalizingly abundant source of clean power, it’s not that easy to produce at scale. Hamlin may find it easy to “drive green” but the green energy bit is still a work in progress.
In other news, Hamlin confirmed that Mad Men is “an ongoing project,” so I think we safely can conclude he survives this weekend’s series finale. He also told me about his upcoming independent movies:
“The Erotic Fire of the Unthinkable” – in which he plays “the anti-hero.” Hamlin claims it’s not as X-rated as his sounds.
“The Fourth Noble Truth” – This movie about Buddhism recently won a prize at the Sonoma Film Festival.
Yesterday, I was invited to join the live BBC World Service show, Business Matters to discuss Apple’s green manifesto and its rivalry with Samsung. I was interviewed by the BBC’s talented Manuela Saragosa. Here’s a transcript of the highlights. Listen to the full interview here (green discussion starts at 26:00).
Saragosa: It was Earth Day on Tuesday… there’s been no dimming of the lights here at the BBC…but technology giant, Apple has been laying out its green manifesto to mark Earth Day. The company’s CEO Tim Cook put out a video, announcing a new scheme that allows any product made by Apple to be returned to the company for recycling.
Our guest, Alison van Diggelen is in California’s Silicon Valley. Alison, green business issues are your thing, what do you make of Apple’s manifesto? Is there substance to it do you think?
van Diggelen: I think there is substance to it. The reason they put out this video is: Greenpeace has been snapping at Apple’s heels for quite some time. I did a story a couple of years ago (for NPR’s KQED Radio) when they were looking at data centers. Greenpeace came up with their own quasi Apple ad (cunningly called iCoal), showing that every time you download something or send a photo on your iPhone, you’re putting more smog into the atmosphere. It was very clever and got Apple’s attention, and now they’re really moving ahead (According to a recent EPA report – Apple is now in the top 10 clean energy users nationally and uses 92% clean energy). One of their major data centers (in North Carolina) where they do Apple iCloud, has 100% green power: clean energy, using solar and fuel cells.
In the video, they’re doing a little chest thumping, saying “Look at us – here’s what we’re doing!” And of course, launching it on the week of Earth Day was a very clever move, a strategic move…
I do think Apple deserves to be lauded. It could do more, but I think shining a light on what it’s doing so far is good.
Saragosa: But it’s come a hugely long way. I know that in 2006, Greenpeace published its first guide to green electronics and at that point it rated Apple among the worst companies (it ranked 11 out of 14 companies). I suppose things have changed quite a lot since then.
van Diggelen: Yes. I think Greenpeace deserves credit for doing what it can to put the pressure on. This report it released went through all the major tech companies: Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter (Amazon), saying: “Here’s what they’re doing folks!” Companies that you think of as pretty green and green advocates like Google, they’re not doing enough. They could do more.
The interesting thing with Tim Cook that your listeners will definitely be interested in is that at a recent shareholders’ meeting, someone stood up and said: “We don’t like what you’re doing with all those clean energy data centers. Couldn’t you be using your funds to make better products…do other things?”
Saragosa: But is that a widely held view?
van Diggelen: This is the interesting thing: Tim Cook struck back at them. He said: “We believe that we must make the world a better place.” He stood up and said this to the shareholders…”If you don’t agree with it, sell your shares! Which was quite gutsy of him I thought. Since then Richard Branson (CEO Virgin Atlantic etc) has said the same (He recently wrote, “Businesses should never be entirely focused on the bottom line…I would urge climate deniers to get out of our way!“) So I think it’s great to see high profile CEO’s like Tim Cook and Richard Branson are doing that, and saying: Hey! We need to think about the environment, we need to think about our impact on the environment. I’m cheered by that.
Listen to more of our discussion re Apple vs Samsung battle, copycats, tech recycling, and safe disposal of electronic goods.
We also explored attitudes to the environment and clean energy in Asia with David Kuo of the Motley Fool in Singapore; and discussed the devastating levels of pollution in China’s major cities.
van Diggelen: I recently spoke with Andrew Chung, who’s a Chinese American venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. He’s doing a lot of work in China and he was telling me about one of the (green) companies he’s investing in. The impetus in China is huge: they’re having to do it because the pollution is so intense, people are dying from the pollution.
One of these companies that’s completely addressing that is LanzaTech. They’re capturing the carbon monoxide pollution from steelmakers outside Shanghai and using it to create valuable fuel and chemicals, rather than ‘just’ capturing it. It’s a really interesting solution: a win win. A win for the environment, but it’s also a money maker and great for the steelmakers. So that’s the kind of play that’s going on in China.
Here come China’s tech giants. Last week, Alibaba and China’s Twitter-like Weibo announced massive IPO plans. Today, in Silicon Valley, China is front and center in the news. Let’s take a closer look at Chinese entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley. How will it change the tech innovation capital of the world? And will a longer term view take hold?
A version of this story aired on BBC’s Tech Tent on March 14, 2014. Listen to the podcast below: @17.35
The latest wave of Chinese immigrants to Silicon Valley is impacting everything from the housing market to the way business is done in the high tech capital of the world.
Ching-Lun Lin, student at Carnegie Mellon SV
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Stuart Evans, a Brit who arrived in Silicon Valley 30 years ago, has been studying the unique ecosystem of Silicon Valley for decades. Today, he teaches entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, and says he’s seen a sevenfold increase in student applications from China and South-East Asia in the last year.
Evans: “It’s been like a racehorse that’s been choked back in the stalls and now the gate’s open and the race is away.”
He’s witnessed millions of dollars from Chinese tech giants flooding into Silicon Valley startups; and incubators popping up for entrepreneurs arriving from Chinese tech hubs in Beijing and Shanghai. In Palo Alto, home of Stanford University, the number of home purchases by Chinese nationals has tripled since 2011. A local realtor recently reported that for every seven offers for a home, three of them will be cash offers from Mainland China. As well as teaching, Evans mentors young entrepreneurs at Innospring, a Silicon Valley based incubator that offers advice, funding and partnerships to fledgling Chinese startups and American ones seeking to expand in China. Here’s how he describes his role:
Evans: “A bouncing board to bounce ideas…to critique, to make connections, to suggest better ways to go about doing things.”
Better ways, and American ways. For example, he’s had to help young Chinese entrepreneurs adapt to the strict American legal system and US privacy concerns. Evans recalls telling a Chinese student that he might run into legal liability and privacy issues his new device for a car steering wheel.
Evans: “It seemed at first to hit a raw nerve…’Why not? Why don’t we just do it anyway?’ …was the entrepreneur’s initial response. Yet Evans found that they did eventually come round to an Americanview of the world.
Evans: “When you reason with people and show them the implications, they very quickly respond and come up with inventive solutions.”
Evans points out that there is no work/life balance in Silicon Valley: your work is your life. He says that fits well with the Chinese mindset and intense work ethic. It’s intensely competitive to get into the best schools in China.
Evans: “I’ve had students who would get up at 4 o’clock in the morning to be prepped before they went to school.”
Innospring founder, Eugene Zhang invites me to tour during a visit by a delegation of “20 under 20” college students from Jiangsu province in China.
Zhang: “Innospring is about capturing that positive energy…the big opportunities…the next Google or Baidu…the giants.”
So how are these Chinese entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley changing the way things are done? One of Evans’s entrepreneurs is Nan Zhong, cofounder of startup TIKL, a walkie-talkie app for smartphones. He describes a different mindset in the Chinese culture.
Zhong: “Letting go instant gratification is driven into my head…you go for what’s eventually going to be good for you, not necessarily what makes you happy at the moment.”
That long-term view colors the way Chinese entrepreneurs run their businesses he explains. They focus on growing market share and endure long-term losses to do so.
Zhong: “People take the pain, take the time, take all the hard work to grow an idea all the way to something that’s global.”
This contrasts with the short-term term view of many Silicon Valley startups, which often focus on being acquired or going public within two years. Evans agrees. In his experience, American and Indian entrepreneurs are generally happy to be acquired by companies like Google and Facebook; whereas his Chinese entrepreneurs prefer growth and autonomy, treating their startups like a precious baby.
Evans: “The idea of bringing up a baby and teaching it how to walk and learn as the company progresses is something that fits very well with the Chinese culture.”
Whether that longer term view takes root in Silicon Valley remains to be seen, but some influences already go both ways. Evans recalls the tale of a US colleague working at a startup in China who shocked his colleagues by cleaning up the tea cups on a Friday afternoon, a job typically done by the ‘ladies’ in the office, even the VPs. Gender and hierarchy boundaries were breached.
Evans:“It transformed the culture of the office with just that one act (finger click) and sent a message that this new way of doing things has implications.”
van Diggelen: “Do you think that’s rippling beyond that startup?”
Evans: “Yes, Silicon Valley is culturally diverse, intellectually homogeneous…it’s a heavily networked ecosystem and what works comes to the surface very quickly.” Instead of a clash of cultures at the surface, Evans says there’s a melding; creating what he calls ‘a global mosaic of talent.’ And Innospring is a focal point in that mosaic. Evans has witnessed a change in the way companies grow in Silicon Valley over the last 30 years. He points to the Chinese being an important part of the valley’s technical competency, with their strong math and software education, which increases opportunities for innovative collaboration.
Evans: “Even though they’re from a different culture and a different background, they speak the same language, technically.”
I suggest the melding that goes on in Silicon Valley in terms of innovation and business practices produces a special Asian Fusion, a bit like the fortune cookie, a Japanese-American creation, that’s largely known as “Chinese.”
Evans: “An Asian Fusion fortune cookie, wow (laughter)…at my age I try to steer clear of cookies…but the idea of fusion is something which is part of Silicon Valley’s DNA, it’s in the sharing and pooling of ideas that brings about the innovation in Silicon Valley.”
Find out more about Alison’s other contributions to and appearances on BBC
4. Never miss an opportunity to be fabulous
